Cedar City Transportation

Well, my work finally ended and that means I no longer have to ride the Cedar City Area Transit or CATS for short. Yea! Lets just say nothing can compare to a small town bus.

First let me paint you a picture of this "bus". You know the dial-a-ride buses that are only available for handicapp people? Well take that, rip out the comfy seats, replace them fold-up church chairs that are not all the way bolted in, the floor, not carpet, but what looks like tile, but who can tell due to the 1 inch layer of dried soda and dirt. Also, there is a handicapp lift in the back which is also not bolted in all the way so if the constant banging doesnt keep you wide awake, the flying seatbelt will when it slashes you across the face. The smell is not too bad, until he turns on the air conditioner. Then you'd wish you were back to sweating drops.

Next comes the ride. Because of our small population, the bus only runs one way. That means, to get to work at 9, I walk to the bus stop at 7:45 and ride for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I don't believe the driver has to hold any type of a special liscense, so as we run stop signs, pull into, or should I say cut off high speed traffic, go over curbs (all the while the driver laughs and says, "man that just jumped out at me!") I have to start taking deep breaths, praying that I can hold on to my breakfast for another hour. What seems to be an eternity and a migraine later, he drops me off in front on my school. I dry heave into the grass for awhile and rush into the classroom. Now I get out of work 15 minutes after the bus comes to my stop agian. So, having an hour to wait, I head to either the gas station or Artic Circle (gross, i know, but it's the only thing remotely close) for some much needed lunch. Now there is a nice little hill covered with grass and trees (rare for cedar city) across from the bus stop. So I start to eat my lunch there and try to get psyched for the trip home. Its nice until the lunch work crowd starts to pass through. And by work crowd I mean shirtless white construction guys, seated 3 to a seat in their huge truck thinking that they are something else. You know that they're desperate when they sucomb to waving to a pregnant lady scarfing down 3 hamburgers at once. Well finally the bus comes, I sit back in my seat and reach my home 30 minutes later.

And finally, my fellow passangers. Now most of the time I am the only one on the bus, so the only conversation I have to worry about is when the driver tells his jokes. But every now and then the bus fills up (with a total of 6 people) and I find myself looking out the window, trying to hold back my grin and wishing someone was thier with me to witness the situation. We pick up a young couple that reminds me of Dan and Rosanne Conner. They each take two seats, due to obvious reasons, turn around and start talking loudly to a quiet older mexican man asking about his knee brace. The man, obviously wanting to be left alone responds with a soft, short answer and turns back to his window. The lady then manages to tell her whole life story to the man, complete with her innate knowledge of the medical field, and is still talking by the time I get off. We picked up another guy, probabaly in his twenties, wearing a wife-beater, and I believe having a grand total of about 4 teeth in his mouth. He sits in the back and starts talking to the driver like thier old friends. The driver, usually a very friendly sort, ignores him almost completely and it starts to get really awkward in the bus. But the guy just keeps talking, laughing to himself until he gets up, announces there's "too much sticky pop"in the back and makes his way to the seat next to me. Now there is one other person on the bus, an old man, and he seeing this, starts to grin, and looks out the window, he probably knows what's coming. He sits down and puts his arm up around my seat and says, "so how are you doing?" I say fine and look back out my window, while he continues to talk to himself and make jokes.

Now, there are many more people that have made me grin in the last 3 weeks, but I don't want to waste your timeor mine. This has been quite an experience and I'm glad it's over, however if we have to live here much longer while Mike commutes, I may have to make the trip again. Let's hope not.